Refrigerator latch



5. 1942- G. E. CURTISS, JR 2 7 REFRIGERATOR LATCH Filed Sept 13, 1940 2Sheet-Shgeh 2 gwum'vbom GEORG E CUR 2700; J22.

Patented Au 25, 1942 UN 1 TE D STATE S PAT EN T F Fl-(ZE REFRIGERATORLATCH George E. Curtiss, J r., New Britain, Conn., assign, or to TheStanley Works, New Britain, Conn. a corporation of ConnecticutApplication September 13, 1940, SerialNo. 356,575.

Claims.

The present invention relates to latches of thetype used on refrigeratordoors, though not limited thereto, and is primarily concerned with alatch having a double pivoted latch bolt retractable about either of twospaced pivot pins. One of the important requirements of a refrigeratorlatch is that it must be normally urged to latching position by a heavyspring or other strong source of force and, at the same time, must bemanually retractable with a minimum of effort.

According to the present invention, the late bolt can, by engagementwith a bolt strike, be pivotally cammed about one pin against the forceof' a heavy spring to unlatched position and, alternatively, can bemanually retracted about a second pin against the force of a relativelylight spring.

It is, therefore, an object of the present inventionto provide animproved latching mechanism of simple, compact, and inexpensiveconstruction provided with the above described structure for meeting therequirements indicated.

A further object is to provide such a latch which may be easily andreadily installed in a refrigerator door and thereafter simply operated.

Other objects will be in part obvious and in part pointed out more indetail hereinafter.

The invention accordingly consists in the features of construction,combination of elements, and-arrangement of parts which will beexemplifield in the construction hereafter set forth and the scope ofthe application of which will be indicated in theappended claims.

In the accompanying drawings:

Figure 1 is a plan view of a latch made in accordance with the presentinvention properly mounted in the refrigerator door;

Fig, 2 is an end profile view of the latch operating handle illustratedin Fig. 1;

Fig. 3 is a cross sectional view taken along line 33 of Fig. 2;

Fig. 4 is a view similar to Fig. 3 illustrating the latch bolt inmanually retracted position; and

Fig. 5-is a rear profile View of the latch mechanism.

Referring to the drawings, there-is illustrated a latch frame or casingF of substantially U- shaped cross section comprising a front wall- Ifand top and bottom walls l2 and lit-respectively. A pair of supportingears M extend outwardly from thewalls l2 and I3 and are provided withscrewopenings l5 for securing the latch frame by screws (not shown) to asupport H5 in the refrigerator door D.

In order to more rigidly support the frame, an L-shaped support 20extends from the rear edge of the front wall H] and includes a'supporting lug 22 fastened to the outer wall or panel 24 of the door.

An escutcheon plate E'ha'ving an opening 25 through which alat'chaboltcBextends issecured to aflange 26 on the forward; edge of the front. framewall H1; The escutcheon E includesarecessed. portion 23 for receivingand latchablyengaging the bolt B'with a strike and keeper. S5. fixed tothe door jamb J;

Referring. to Figure 1 the latch boltBi is: a substantially triangularshaped. member. having; a forward strike engaging vertex or. nose 28, a.cam surface 29, andan; arcuated: keeper'engaging surface 29'. Thetboltis pivotally; supported. at its upper vertex on a pin .30. The ends'of:pin 3!] are slidably. and rotatably journalledi in a pair of arcuatedslots. 32 rearwardly disposed in the walls l2. and. [3 of the frame; Thebolt isalso pivotally. journalled at'.the. third or lowervertex on asecond pin t lsimilarly supported in: a second pair of arcuatedslotstfidisposed forwardly from slots 32. in: the walls l2 and I 3;. Asshown in Figure 1, the arcuated slots 32 andu36 curve towards oneanother, slots 32'. having: a common radius about the axis. of: pin.34', and; slots 36 a like radius about pin 30;

Pivotally'supported' centrally on the pin 3411s, one end of a link 38,the other end. of? which is provided with a slot 40 for reciprocably.supporting the link on a stud42isecured betweenthe frame walls I2 and[3. A heavy spring 44" surroundsthe link and is compressed: between thepin 42 and ashoulder 31 adjacent the forward: end of the link 38 wherebythepinis normallyv urged forwardly in the arcuated slots 36.. A- lightspring 45' surrounds the pin;34 and is.compressed between the bolt andthe latch frame so as to normally force thev boltina counterclockwisedirection about pin 34:and;to1thereby. force the pin 33 forwardly in thearcuated journalling slots 32. To normally preventrot'ation: of theboltabout the second-pin-34, there isprovided a lever 49 pivotallysupportedin the frame on a stud 48. The lever 46 is provided. at theforward end with a stop 50 for releasably. securing the pin 30 forwardlyin the slots 32 and. isprovided at the rear end with a pair ofnotches51.,

In order to rotate the lever and provide for manual retractionof thebolt about pin 34against the force of the light spring 45a shaft52 isoper ably retained in the lever notches 5| by slidably. securing theends of the shaftin a pair of oppositely disposed elongated slots 53 inthe frame. To retract the shaft 52 and rotate lever. 46,. as illustratedin Figs. 3 and 4, a yoke 54 ispivotally supported centrally on theshaft. A rod 56 issecured to the-yoke and extends through a hole- 58'inthe lug 22 and door panel 24 towards thedoor handle H. A light spring60 is compressed between the yoke 54 and a washer 62 so that the latchlever 46 isnormally urged in a counterclockwisedirection to the positionwherein it abutsthe pin 30 andpre-vents pivotal movement;

of the bolt about pin 34. The other end of the,

rod is secured by screw threads 64 in one end of a turnbuckle oradjustment link 66. The adjustment link is pivotally secured to the freeend of a manually operable bolt retracting lever 68 .and provides foradjusting the position of the retracting lever relative to the handle Hwhen the latch is installed. A slot Iii in the lever 68' is pivotallysecured to the handle on a pin 12.

In operation, assuming the refrigerator door to be open pin will havebeen forced by the light spring to its forwardmost position in the slots32 and will be retained thereat by the lever 46. Upon swinging the doorto closed position, the combination strike and keeper S engages thecamming surface 29 and pivotally cams the latch bolt rearwardly aboutthe pin 30 whereupon pin 34 is forced rearwardly in the slots 35. Whenthe bolt nose 28 clears the strike, the spring 44 forces the boltforward to latchably engage the surface 29 and the strike S.

Referring to Fig. 2, to open the door it is merely necessary to pull onthe lever 68 of the handle H. The lever 68 pivots about the pin 12retracting the rod 56 and yoke 54 and rotating lever 46 thereby movingthe stop 50 out of abutment with the pin 30. The pull on the handle Hcauses the strike S to rotate the bolt B about the pin 34 against theforce of the light spring 45 to the position illustrated in Fig. 4. Whenthe handle H is released. the bolt B is returned to latching position bythe light spring 45, and the lever 46 returned by the light spring tothe position illustrated in Fig. 3.

There is thus provided a refrigerator latch including a heavy spring forpivotally forcing the bolt about one pin to latching position and meansfor manually retracting the bolt about a second pin without exerting theforce necessary to retract the bolt against the heavy spring.

As many changes could be made in the above construction and manyapparently widely different embodiments of this invention could be madewithout departing from the scope thereof, it is intended that all mattercontained in the above description or shown in the accompanying drawingsshall be interpreted as illustrative and not in a limiting sense.

It is also to be understood that the language used in the followingclaims is intended to cover all of the generic and specific features ofthe invention herein described and all statements of the scope of theinvention which, as a matter of language, might be said to falltherebetween.

I claim as my invention:

1. A refrigerator latch including a frame, a latch bolt pivotallysupported about both of two spaced bins, said frame operably supportingsaid pins for transverse movement relative to said frame, a light springconstantly urging the bolt to latching position about the first of saidpins, a heavy spring constantly urging the bolt to latching positionabout the second pin, movable abutment means preventing movement of thefirst pin from latching position whereby the bolt may be pivoted tounlatched position about said first pin against the action of said heavyspring, and manually operable means for actuating said abutment means topermit movement of the first pin and pivotal movement of the latch boltto unlatched position about the second, pin against the action of thelight spring pivotally supported on the pivot pin and latch:-

ably engageable with a keeper, a second pivot pin spaced from the firstpivot pin and similarly journalled in a second pair of arcuated slots inthe frame, said second pin pivotally supporting the latch bolt, a lightspring continually forcing the first pin forwardly to latching positionin the first pair of arcuated slots, a heavy spring for forcing thesecond pin forwardly to latching position in the second pair of arcuatedslots, movable abutment means for securing the first pin in latchingposition and thereby preventing pivotal movement of the bolt tounlatched position about the second pin, resilient means for normallyforcing said abutment means to securing position and manually operablemeans for overcoming said resilient. means and releasing the first pinfrom the restraint of said abutment so as to allow the latch keeper topivot the bolt to unlatched position about the second pin.

3. A refrigerator latch including a latch bolt having two strikeengaging surfaces, a pair of spaced pins upon which said bolt ispivotally mounted whereby it may pivot about one pin when one surface isstruck and the other pin when the other surface is struck, meansslidably mounting each of said pins for transverse movement at rightangles to their axes, abutment means and means normally engaging andholding one of said pins in fixed position whereby when one surface isstruck the bolt will pivot about said pin, means resiliently holding theother pin against sliding movement, means for disengaging and releasingsaid abutment means and first pin whereby when the other surface isstruck said bolt may pivot about the resiliently held pin, and resilientmeans continually urging said bolt to return to normal position.

4. A refrigerator latch mountable on a door and including a latch bolthaving two strike engaging surfaces engageable with a strike mounted onthe door jamb, a pair of spaced pins upon which said bolt is pivotallymounted whereby the bolt may be pivotally retracted about one pin when aforce is impressed upon one surface and r is pivotally retracted aboutthe other pin when a force is impressed on the other surface, meansoperably mounting each of said pins, a heavy spring continually urgingsaid bolt to pivot to latching position about said second pin, a lightspring continually urging the bolt to pivot to latching position aboutthe first pin, movable abutment means normally preventing pivotalretraction of the bolt about the first pin, manually operable means formoving said abutment from normal position, and spring means continuallyurging said abutment to normal position.

5. A refrigerator latch including a frame, a latch bolt pivotallysupported about both of two spaced pins, said frame having spaced wallsmovably supporting each of said pins for transverse movement relative tosaid frame in oppositely disposed slotted guideways, each pair ofguideways being concentrically curved relative to the pin supported inthe opposite guideway, movable abutment means engaging and preventingtransverse movement of one of said pins and permitting pivotal movementof the bolt about said pin, manually operable means for disengaging saidmovable abutment, means to permit transverse movement of said first pinand pivotal movement of the bolt about the second pin, and a springresiliently opposing movement of said first pin when said abutment isdisengaged therefrom.

GEORGE E. CUR-"rise, Ja.-

